birthday thankfulness

I know I am blessed. 

I am blessed beyond what I can really understand in my head and see through my eyes right now. And one day, it will be completely clear.  Often times, we have somewhat a distorted description and point of view of what blessed means.  I stumbled upon the following in the Bible:

When God raised up His servant, 

He sent Him first to you to bless you 

by turning each of you from your wicked ways.

Acts 3:26

I know I've read this many a times before, but it was only recently (within the past 5 months, I would say) that this scripture became so evidently clear to me.  The blessing one receives from the Lord comes first through what the scripture above says.  One is blessed - seriously blessed! - when conviction comes to the heart, and repentance happens, which then leads to salvation and a new life in Christ.  Forgiven. Redeemed. Bought a costly price. Made new. Covered in the precious blood of heaven's darling. 

Do I really get it now? 

If you claim to be a lover and believer of God, do you really get this?

Well, I hope that a revelation will come in due time if it hasn't already. It is an amazing thing, and still blows me away every time I am reminded of this.  Blessed. 

To share a little heart-warming event that happened last night, here are a few photos of a birthday celebration for me.  First, my husband had a seafood home-made dinner for two on my birthday night. I ate almost all of the yummy crabs.  I itched afterwards and had to take a hot shower to relieve some itching, but it was worth eating them crabs :)  We also had some gluten-free and gluten-filled home-baked biscuits. I t was a delicious birthday dinner.  All of it cost less than $20 US dollars, since we currently live in Guadalajara, Mexico. 

Here's the proof of the seafood yumminess :)
I'm sure you don't wanna see the messy part of this dinner.

Then, last night, on our Wednesday Bible study night, our sisters in the Lord had an ensemble of yummy foods and treats as birthday present for me - of course, I had to share.  Of course! :)  They totally had me surprised.  I even cooked dinner for us all, as usual since it was our Wednesday gathering night, not knowing there would be a giant box of pizza, potato chips, chocolate-covered berries, a pumpkin pie, and a donut with blue frosting!  Needless to say, I think we stuffed ourselves a bit too much.  My husband even got to eat pizza with cheese without getting sick - praise God! He hasn't eaten anything with gluten or with lactose for a few long months now, but he was fine afterwards (with a little help from a Lactaid pill).  Below are proofs of the goodies :)

One of my most favorite colors is blue.

My friend and sister in the Lord, Gracie, got me this blue-frosted donut.  I ate it this morning for breakfast with a good hot cup of coffee.  yum! I am a sweet tooth :) I'll admit.

These were delicious! 

 Another friend and sister in the Lord, Ayanna - who is also a medical student and goes out to the downtown plazas with us to share and preach the gospel, brought these chocolate-covered berries. I discovered something more delicious than chocolate-covered strawberries.  Peaches!! :)

The mess at dinner time, when all the surprises came :)

Miss Yoli (Nick's co-worker), who is also a sister in the Lord, and Rosalind, another one of them (and a graduating medical student!) brought the huge Costco pizza and pumpkin pie. 

Talking about being blessed…this is just a little thing of a blessing in comparison to the redemption done by Christ on the cross for me and for all who would believe.  However, don't get me wrong, I appreciated this little surprise gesture our friends and sisters in the Lord did for a post-birthday dinner :) Thank you all!  And thank you for all the prayers you lifted up to our Lord for me.  They were very heart-felt.  My 28th birthday was quite memorable.